


cataphora

by kurgaya



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Arranged Marriage, Don't copy to another site, Flirting, M/M, Political Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: This is a dangerous land filled with dangerous people. The Hatake clan know this better than most. Perhaps this is why only two of them remain – two but soon to be three with Gai here dressed in his best.[Political marriage AU - An alliance between their lands brings them together. They're not eternal rivals, not yet].
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Comments: 26
Kudos: 180





	cataphora

**Author's Note:**

> I headcanon that the Hatake clan originated in the Land of Iron and this AU dabbles in that idea. The most important change is that Kakashi and Gai have slightly different characteristics. Kakashi is basically a less traumatised young man with more sass (yay). But he’s also the only heir to the Land of Iron, so he grew up with more trust issues and less friends. He definitely wears both a literal _and_ figurative mask. Gai never had Kakashi to challenge and accept him growing up so he experienced more peer pressure to fit in. He’s more subdued, more serious. Honestly it kinda killed me to write but I hope it’s believable!
> 
> Shout out to egregiousderp for reading this over for me :3

Gai opens his eyes as fabric settles heavily beside him, a body lowering to its knees. He shifts from his meditative position, rolling his shoulders and head. It’s a slow awakening, a beast stirring calm from winter. The Land of Iron is certainly cold enough to hibernate. The days are long and dark and the nights darker still. For a land with snow so ceaseless and a horizon of silver and white, it’s a gloomy place, clouded. He can hardly remember how it feels to have the sun on his face. He misses it but he will persevere. The Land of Fire is no stranger to snow – but not like this, so encompassing, so consuming. The people of Iron are resilient – and they must be to survive in this treacherous world. Gai struggles to picture himself dwelling here but it’s a challenge he knows he must face. He’d be lying if he said the prospect filled him with dread.

The samurai of Iron are no shinobi but they have proven themselves as equal in all things. Kakashi is certainly one of the best. He moves as skillfully as any jonin: quietly and with purpose. He is swift even in his full armour – which Gai notes that he lacks now, and its absence is jarring. Gone is the silver metal and the frightening helmet. The armour he’s wearing is lighter and blends into the dark greys of his robes. Compared to Gai, he is still heavily protected, but then Gai is something of an oddity even in Konoha. Kakashi has no lack of layers to hide his weapons away. The only one that Gai can see is the katana, and Kakashi lays it down like a wall between them.

This is a dangerous land filled with dangerous people. The Hatake clan know this better than most. Perhaps this is why only two of them remain – two but soon to be three with Gai here dressed in his best.

His best – and Asuma’s. “Just wear it,” Asuma had groused, wrapping the Sarutobi sash around Gai’s waist. “The jacket too.”

Gai can’t say he’s a fan of the many decorative layers required, but at least the Sarutobi colour is brown. He’d prefer not to have his movement restricted (especially in a foreign land), but if he must, then only for the good of the village. It would be unbearably hot where they anywhere else, but he hasn’t felt warm since they arrived almost three weeks ago.

“You’re awfully cheery,” Kakashi drawls, although Gai wouldn’t describe himself as such. Kakashi cocks his head, eyes sharp, but is otherwise utterly still. Power flickers under his skin, his chakra betraying his nervous energy like the wagging tail of a dog. “Are you sure you want to marry me?”

Considering they’re both sat here while the last-minute wedding preparations bustle around them, it’s a little late to back out now. Not that Gai would. “Of course,” he says; a Maito promise is unbreakable. “This will benefit the village.”

“Wow. Makes me feel wanted.”

Gai eyes him critically, unfazed by the sarcasm. “Isn’t your reasoning the same?”

Kakashi scoffs. “Obviously. But you could do with sweetening your words a little, _husband_.”

Gai jolts at the term and then berates himself for it. Terms of endearment are commonplace in marriage. A political marriage might not be any different with a man as sardonic as Kakashi. “We’re not yet married –”

“ _Yet_ ,” Kakashi agrees. Mocking seems to be his answer to everything. It’s an effective front, Gai will give him that. But it’s not all there is behind his mask, Gai is sure. “But soon to be. This is your last chance to say what you want.”

Voices rise up around the room, louder than before. Gai recognises Minato’s careful laugh but resolves to ignore it.

“What do you mean?”

“Regrets, misconceptions, things like that,” Kakashi says, waving a hand. His eyes close into half-moons beneath his winter-white hair. A black mask covers the lower half of his face but his mouth turns up into a smile. If the rumours are true, that mouth will be as sharp as his eyes.

Gai supposes… he might find out. He shoves the thought down. Admiring a foreign lord while the safety of their nations is at stake doesn’t sound like his finest idea. “I have none of those things.”

“Hm.” It’s a sceptical sound. Mirth slips from Kakashi’s face, returning to ice. “That’s awfully magnanimous of you.”

Generosity has nothing to do with Gai’s decision. “My friend can now marry the woman he loves and our villages gains a powerful ally. I have nothing to regret.”

What little of Kakashi’s expression is visible seems taken aback. Gai isn’t naïve enough not to recognise an ulterior motive; Kakashi is a politician as well as a warrior. He’s not sure what that motive _is_ yet, but he’s certain it’s neither dishonest nor cruel. As to _why_ he believes this – he cannot say.

“Maa, I knew you were loyal,” Kakashi says, composing himself in the blink of an eye. “But that’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”

Gai sits up a little straighter, holds his head a bit higher. He’ll take that back-handed compliment as the praise it is. "I commit myself fully to everything. Are you not the same?"

Kakashi evades. "Is that what you think about me?"

Gai doesn’t know what to think of him. He’s heard rumours of blood-thirsty samurai and a blood-thirsty clan. War speaks terrible things into existence. It’s true that Iron is a powerful land, a cornerstone in a war of which they want no part. But the reality is never that simple. Gai’s not sure what to believe anymore.

"Among other things," he replies, trying not to glower – or blush, or do any of the things that might give something away. He reminds himself of what's at stake. Minato’s presence is an undying reminder of this fact; a beacon amidst the Iron gloom. Gai’s confidence cannot waver.

Kakashi seems pleased to have goaded honesty out of Gai. “No wonder your Hokage wants to strangle me.”

Minato isn’t pleased by this turn of events, true, but he wasn’t pleased about the political marriage to begin with. Asuma was supposed to be sitting here, not Gai. The most apt choice for a representative would have been a member of one of Konoha’s Noble clans, but for various reasons they had been… against the idea. Neither Minato nor Asuma had shared the details. As one of the first settlers within Konoha, the Sarutobi clan have just enough influence not to offend the great nation of Iron, and under pressure from his father and the council, Asuma had (begrudgingly) volunteered.

Letters were exchanged, gifts offered, and terms of peace agreed. The Hatake and Sarutobi families corresponded for months until, finally, a party of Konoha’s best, led by the Hokage himself, set out to secure relations.

And yet – here is Gai. Three days after their arrival to Yamagakure, the Hatake heir requested to marry Gai instead, a man he’d only spoken to a handful of times. To say the turn was unprecedented would downplay the reaction on _both_ sides. And to say anyone expected Gai to agree would be _absurd_.

That was two weeks ago. Minato and the Yamagakure council quarrelled oveshoghe matter as only politicians can.

“If anyone gives you any trouble,” Asuma had said last night, flicking cigarette ashes out into the snow, “You let me know. That includes my father.”

Gai can handle himself – but the concern is touching. He prefers it to Asuma’s guilty sulking. There isn’t much he can do for Minato’s mood, unfortunately, but that probably won’t improve until they’re back home in Konoha.

(Gai isn’t sure when he’ll be returning).

“Lord Fourth’s animosity isn’t towards you,” he assures. Minato is kind, has always been kind. Gai has never seen him lash out in the years he’s commanded Konoha – not at his council, his colleagues, or even his enemies. Minato’s is a brewing anger and it will take far more than Kakashi’s meddling to tip it over the edge.

“Ah, so you _can_ be sweet,” Kakashi replies. “I don’t blame him; I _am_ stealing you away.”

Gai huffs at the comparison. He is a taijutsu master, not some fair maiden.

“Aren’t you?” Kakashi chimes. “That’s good. I wouldn’t know what to do with one of those.”

The thought that flashes across Gai’s mind is surprisingly lewd. He laughs, startling them both.

“You’ll be good for him,” Rin had decided as she ran a blade through Gai’s hair. (He had a bowl-cut once, many years ago. It’s been a long time since he was that child challenging the wind). “I don’t think he’s ever made a friend.”

Genma had rolled his eyes. “Who cares? It’s more important that he’s good for _Gai_. He’s weird, don’t you think?”

Gai knows first-hand how little the village appreciates _weird_. Kakashi is no stranger than he was as a child. Rin is probably right: as the sole heir of the Land of Iron, it’s unlikely Kakashi has many friends. They’ve certainly not seen any in their time here. Gai remembers how that feels. But that’s not the reason he agreed to the marriage. He has many reasons, in fact, but only one he hasn’t shared.

“Oh,” the Lord of Iron had said, although it had been barely a word. Gentle-faced but so still he might have been dead, so pale he was almost a corpse, he hadn’t moved but for his eyes and his mouth. Wolf-like teeth drew blood from those frost-bitten lips. “You’ll be a good challenge for my son.”

Gai never asked if the Lord of Iron was aware of his son’s intention to wed another man. It seems the type of thing you _would_ discuss with your father and the leader of your country, but Kakashi is lightning and snow: limitless, unbound. He has goals and attains them; motives and achieves them. Gai can’t deny that such an ambition… speaks to him.

“So you _can_ smile. I was beginning to think I was marrying a statue,” Kakashi says, his eyebrows so far up into his hairline that his guards shift uneasily, surprised his face can achieve the expression. He leans right into Gai’s space, not quite touching but so close that he appears to be. His katana disappears under the many folds of his robes.

Gai jerks back, a flush rises up his face. He tries not to notice the room hushing around them. “I wouldn’t –” He clears his throat, hoping to defuse the atmosphere before it can… escalate. His hands itch to gentle Kakashi back into his seat. Instead, he focuses on Minato’s chakra, reminding himself of the stakes. “I wouldn’t wish to do you the dishonour –”

The samurai of Iron place great emphasis on honour. Gai casts his mind to his father and thinks he can understand. Insulting Kakashi is one thing, but implying that he might lose _honour_ by marrying Gai is another. Gai can’t allow that – not for Konoha and not for Iron, and not for that pale old shōgun who wishes the best for his son.

“No, we wouldn’t want that,” Kakashi agrees, but his eyes – or maybe just the shimmer around his eyes – _twinkle_.

Gai sucks in his lips, scared of what he might say. Kakashi laughs and leans away, and in an instant, his expression freezes back to disinterest as a guard approaches his side. They converse in low, formal tones, Kakashi’s hand never leaving his katana. Gai turns away and wipes a bead of sweat from his brow.

An emotion he's afraid to define seizes his chest. _Kakashi’s been flirting with me_ , he realises, heart pounding as though he's lapped the village a hundred times.

He's glad, in that moment, that Kakashi is distracted. He hardly trusts himself to speak. Maybe his team are right to worry; maybe Gai doesn't know what he's signed himself up for.

Kakashi is equally subdued when he waves the guard away. His chakra is the quiet rolling of a storm. Gone is the lightning; that tempestuous energy under his skin. Gai can't deny he aches to ignite it again and the need… frightens him. He thinks better of it. Kakashi is quick with his katana – and quicker with the tantō he has hidden at his side. Given his ever-present armour, he might not appreciate a more tactile friendship.

Marrying Gai could change that - it could change a lot of things. He hopes it will. There's little challenge in a stagnant life, no thrill in remaining the same. He grins, eager for the trials ahead.

The Land of Iron is a canvas of opportunity. It's a world of snow waiting for spring. Marrying its heir won't be easy but he glances towards Kakashi and thinks it might be fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! All comments are appreciated :)


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